Jacques Berlinerblau

Jacques Berlinerblau is Professor and Director of the Program for Jewish Civilization at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has doctorates in Ancient Near Eastern languages and literature (from NYU) and theoretical sociology (from the New School for Social Research). He has published on a wide variety of scholarly subjects with special attention to heresy, atheism, secularism, Jewish-American literature and biblical literature.

From 2007–2009 he wrote the blog The God Vote,^[1] an exploration of the role of faith in the 2008 U.S. presidential race, for Newsweek 's On Faith website.^[2]

Berlinerblau hosts and produces the show Faith Complex which is described as "a dialogue about the intersection of religion, politics and art." In 2010 he launched a second show with The Washington Post's Sally Quinn entitled "The God Vote" which focuses on news cycle issues involving faith and politics. In addition to this work in visual media, Berlinerblau blogged for The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Brainstorm" page between 2010-2012. He wrote about secularism, literature, and various subjects in higher education.^[3] His work on religion and politics and the 2012 election also appeared in the HuffingtonPost.^[4]

Outside of his usual publications in scholarly areas of interest, Berlinerblau has in recent years turned his attention to the interview format.

His guests in the arts have included:

• Georgetown Professor Michael Eric Dyson^[5] discussing hip-hop theology
• Director of the Washington Ballet Septime Webre^[6] on homophobia and ballet
• Novelist Cynthia Ozick^[7]
• Novelist Gary Shteyngart^[8]
• Novelist David Bezmozgis^[9]
• Novelist Lara Vapnyar^[10]
• Dr. Derek Parker Royal^[11] (founder of the Philip Roth Society)
• Literary critics Adam Kirsch and Liel Leibovitz^[12] discussing Philip Roth’s career;

Some of his interview subjects in the political sphere have included:

• The former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski^[13]
• The former Prime Minister of Spain, José Maria Aznar^[14]
• Congressman Jim Moran^[15]
• The Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Anti-Semitism, Hannah Rosenthal^[16]

Books

• Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals (1999, Rutgers University Press) ISBN 0-8135-2588-8
• The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously (2005, Cambridge University Press) ISBN 0-521-61824-X
• The Vow and the 'Popular Religious Groups' of Ancient Israel: A Philological & Sociological Inquiry (1996, Sheffield Academic Press) ISBN 1-85075-578-7
• Thumpin’ It: The Use and Abuse of the Bible in Today’s Presidential Politics (2008, Westminster John Knox) ISBN 978-0-664-23173-6
• How to be Secular: A Field Guide for Religious Moderates, Atheists and Agnostics (2012, Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt) ISBN 978-0-547-47334-5

References

External links

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• Homepage at Georgetown
• The Faith Complex